The web pulsates. It contracts and expands. Let the magician seize the midway point and
thus release those, "prisoners of the planet" whose note is right and justly
tuned to that which must be made.

It is necessary for the magician here to remember that all that takes place upon the
earth is to be found within the planetary etheric web. The worker in white magic, being an
occultist, deals in universals, and starts his magical work on the confines of the
physical etheric sphere. His problem is to locate those lesser lives, within the web, who
are of the right order to be built into the proposed thought vehicle. Such work can
necessarily only be done by the man who, through the severance of the confining web of his
own etheric web, can reach out to that which is consciously recognized by him as the
planetary vital body. Only he who is free can control and utilize those who are
prisoners. This is an occult axiom [1024] of real moment, and much of the failure
undergone by would-be workers in magic is to be traced to the fact that they themselves
are not free. The "prisoners of the planet" are those myriads of deva lives who
form the planetary pranic body, and are swept in on the floods of vital force emanating
from the physical sun.

RULE
XIII

The magician must recognize the four; note in his work the shade of violet which they
evidence, and thus construct the shadow. When this is so, the shadow clothes itself, and
the four become the seven.

This means literally that the magician must be in a position to discriminate between
the different ethers, and to note the special hue of the different levels, thereby
ensuring a balanced building of the "shadow." He "recognizes" them in
the occult sense; that is, he knows their note and key, and is aware of the particular
type of energy they embody. Enough emphasis has not been laid upon the fact that the three
higher levels of the etheric planes are in vibratory communication with the three higher
planes of the cosmic physical plane, and they (with their ensphering fourth level) have
been called in the occult books "the inverted Tetraktys." It is this knowledge
which puts the magician in possession of the three types of planetary force and their
combination, or the fourth type, and thus releases for him that vital energy which will
drive this idea into objectivity. As the different types of forces meet and coalesce, a
dim shadowy form clothes itself upon the vibrating astral and mental sheath, and the idea
of the solar Angel is attaining definite concretion.

RULE
XIV

The sound swells out. The hour of danger to the soul courageous draweth near. The
waters have not hurt the white creator and naught could drown nor drench him. Danger from
fire and flame [1025] menaces now, and dimly yet the rising smoke is seen. Let him again,
after the cycle of peace, call on the solar Angel.

The work of
creation assumes now serious proportions, and for the final time the body of the magician
is menaced by destruction. The "shadow" having been formed, it is now ready to
take to itself a "fiery" or gaseous body, and it is these fire builders who
menace the life of the magician, and this for the following reasons.

Firstly,
because the fires of the human body are closely allied to the fires with which the
magician seeks to work, and should these latent fires of the body and the latent fires of
the planet be brought into too close juxtaposition, the creator is in danger of burning
and destruction.

Secondly,
the Agnichaitans, being allied to the "fire devas" of the mental plane,
have much power, and can only be controlled properly by the solar Angel Himself.

Thirdly, on
this planet the planetary fires are not as yet dominated by solar fire, and are very
easily driven into the work of destruction.

The solar
Angel must, therefore, now again be invoked. This means that the magician (when his
"shadow" is completed, and prior to the final stages of concretion) must see to
it that his alignment with the Ego is just and unimpeded, and the communicating currents
in full play. He must literally "renew his meditation," and make direct contact
afresh before proceeding with the work. Otherwise, the fires of his own body may get out
of control, and his etheric body suffer in consequence. He, therefore, fights fire with
fire, and draws down solar fire for his protection. This was not necessary on the astral
plane. For the magician, the moments of the greatest danger in the work of creating are at
certain junctures on the astral plane, where he is in danger of occult drowning, and at
the transition from etheric levels [1026] to the planes of tangible concretion, when he is
menaced by "occult burning." In the one case, he does not call on the Ego, but
stems the tide by love and the equilibrising powers of his own nature. In the latter case,
he must call in that which represents the will aspect in the three worlds, the impulsive,
dynamic thinker or solar Angel. He accomplishes this by means of a mantram. No clue can be
given to this, owing to the powers it confers.

RULE
XV

The fires approach the shadow, yet burn it not. The fire sheath is completed. Let the
magician chant the words that blend the fire and water.

Little can here be said in interpretation of these words, beyond a reference to the
general sense. The gaseous sheath is created, and the hour for the formation of the sheath
for the sixth subplane, the liquid, is near. The two must blend. This is the moment of the
greatest danger, as far as the thought form itself is concerned. Earlier dangers have
menaced the magician. Now the form he is creating must be protected. The nature of the
danger is hinted at in the words: "Where fire and water meet apart from chanted
sound, all dissipates in steam. The fire ceases to be." This danger is hid in the
karmic enmity existing between the two great groups of devas. These groups can only be
united by the mediator, man.

It might be asked of what use the fifteen rules for magic communicated above may be.
Naught, as yet, as far as practical work is concerned, but much where inner intellectual
development is desired. He who meditates and broods over these rules in the light of what
has been earlier communicated anent the devas and building forces, will arrive at an
understanding of the Laws of Construction in the macrocosm, which will avail him much, and
save him much time when the magical work and formulas are put in his hands. [1027]